The southern city of Guangzhou faces the Pearl River and is a place of call for maritime and foreign ships. In the Song Dynasty, the southern city has become a commercial center, protected by the east and west Yanyi City. The Yuan Dynasty was destroyed by the rebellion. After entering the Ming Dynasty, commerce flourished here, but after the Tuolin Mutiny, the residents in the south of the city were victimized, and the government built a new city according to the old site of Yanyi City. "Guangdong Tongzhi" said: "In the forty-second year of Jiajing, Wu Guifang, the imperial history of Jiazidu, took the Tuolin mutiny, trampled on the residents outside the city, and built from the southwest corner tower and Wuyang Station, surrounded to the southeast corner tower new city, because of the defense. ”

With the protection of the city wall, although the new south city faces the Pearl River and faces the Hao River on three sides, it is the smallest among the three cities of Guangzhou, but the foreign ship area, the dock area, the commercial area, and the rich residential area are all concentrated here, becoming the commercial and economic center of Guangzhou.

At this time, on the embankment of the Pearl River outside the Jinghai Gate in Nancheng, there were several people standing, wearing robes and hats. It seems to be patrolling something.

The haze is compact, and the smoke and rain are hazy. There were more than a dozen sailing ships looming on the river, and only black clusters of silhouettes could be seen in the thick of the mist. Overlooking the green island, the white goose pond, hidden in the deep and dense place of the smoke wave, as if connected with the clouds and the sky.

"Fuck, where did the Australian sea ship come from?" One of them spat and said indignantly.

"Wang Tou'er, we have been looking for more than ten days, and we have also seen all kinds of sea ships along the river, how can there be any strange big ships."

The man who was called the king's head did not answer, but looked at him for a long time, silent. The center of the river is in a circle, and the old fish are blowing the waves. The strange rocks under the embankment are craggy, and the turbid waves are beating. Not far from them, a foreign ship was unloading, and a group of porters were carrying goods from the side of the ship down the barge of the wharf.

"Brother Wang, I really don't understand. The lord is good at haode in the center left, how can he be interested in asking us to find some Australian maritime business? I have followed my master for many years, and I have traveled through both the East and the West, and I have never heard of Rausch's Australia! ”

The king snorted coldly and reprimanded, "What are you fooling around, what kind of place is this?!" Don't want a head? ”

When they heard this, they were silent.

After a while, I heard Wang Tou'er say: "Although Australia is a place where we have never stopped talking, the things sold in the Gao family's shop on Nahao Street are not falling from the sky, right?" Guangzhou City is crazy at the moment, who doesn't know the strange goods of Australia. Since we have made such a fortune from the sea, how can our brothers not make a fortune. He smirked, "This time we must find out the details of this group of maritime merchants." ”

It turned out that these people were the subordinates of Zheng Zhilong, the "giant coward" who was currently in Fujian and shook the two provinces of Fujian and Guangdong. At present, he and Li Kuiqi have gathered more than 30,000 people to occupy a series of important coastal islands and seaports in southern Fujian, such as Zhongzuo, Gulangyu, Dadan, Lieyu, and Gaopu.

The group walked along the pier towards the city, and gradually saw an increase in pedestrians and goods sellers. After the Dragon King Temple, you will see the Jinghai Gate Tower. Entering the city, along the road all the way to Wuyang Gate, a majestic and magnificent temple in front of it, is the Tianfei Temple built during the Hongwu period. This is the traffic center of the southern city, the place where all the five directions are mixed, all kinds of people are mixed with sedan chairs and mule carts, the traders gather, the market is lively, only to see the noisy people, the stalls are continuous, a thriving market.

The king's head was very careful, and only walked along the base of the wall, turned a corner, and went into the alley, and there was a small hotel at the root of the city. Half-hung bamboo curtains hung with oily black and black mess. A crowd of people stepped into the store. There are a few oil lamps hanging in the hall, and even during the day, it is very dim. The diners were in a commotion, and the ground was wet and squeaky, slippery, and filled with the strange smell of vegetables, wine, oil, smoke, sweat, and smell.

When Qitang saw someone coming in, he hurriedly greeted the guests. Wang Tou'er asked for an empty seat in a single room and ordered some wine and food. The curtain is not completely lowered, but halfway up, the brother sitting at the door can look at the whole store.

After waiting for a while, there was a gangster-like figure on the street at the door of the store, a middle-aged man with a white face and no beard. When the eyes of the two sides met, the newcomer came in and sat down, and did not say hello, and the group of people only ate and drank by themselves. Seeing that there were no plainclothes Kuaishou fans in the store, the king asked quietly, "What news is there about the brothers on Haopan Street?" ”

"I've been stalking for almost half a month, and it's useless. I saw that the goods in the high mansion were carried out one by one and sent to the shop, but I didn't see any special goods going in, and I didn't see any strange characters. ”

"What the hell!" The king had no intention of eating vegetables, staring at a plate of hot and fragrant green onion fried snake silk, "How did so many goods get in?" "Could it be a trick? The goods in Australia were not shipped from the Gao family, but they were used to cover it up?

"Where is the Gao family's stackhouse on the dock?"

"I've inquired too," he shook his head, "The rules in the Gao family's shop are very strict, and there is nothing to find out at all." The brothers inquired for many days to find out that the steward of the inn had a half-closed door, and it took some money to get some news from the woman's mouth. As he spoke, he stopped and drank to himself.

Wang Tou knew that this social rat on the ground was taking the opportunity to extort money again, so he scolded in his heart, and only said: "The silver is easy to say, what did you hear?" ”

The steward said that Australian goods were never sent and received in the storehouse, and all were sent out from the private house in the high house. There are not many things that are sent out each time, only a few boxes of goods. But everything is worth a lot of money. The middle-aged man said, his eyes showing greed.

"How often do you ship the goods?"

"Not sure, it's usually around ten days."

This shows that the goods did come out of the mansion, but how did they get in? The Gao family is not by the sea, and the boat can't go in. Did it fall from the sky?

"What the Gao family brought into the mansion, have you explored it?"

"I asked the third flying foot of the foot line to help me with this matter, and he asked for a lot of money......

"Well said." Wang Tou'er said this, but touched the short knife in his sleeve.

"He asked for ten taels of silver," the middle-aged man squinted at Wang Tou'er, testing his reaction. Wang Tou smiled dumbfounded, did not answer, and swept over a few people around him, all sneering. The man suddenly remembered who was sitting in front of him, and hurriedly continued, "The third flying foot ordered someone to secretly inspect the things that the Gao family had brought in, it is indeed strange!" ”

"Oh? Is the color of the goods entrained? ”

"No, no, it's that things are kind of weird to be shipped in and out."

They bought the top and bottom of the foot line, and privately inspected the bulk goods that had been transported in and out of the mansion in the past month, and the things that were brought in were mainly porcelain and ironware in the past, and the goods shipped out were roughly the same. But this month was different, in addition to these, a lot of musk, dragon incense, and red sandalwood were brought in—the strangest thing was that they had never been shipped out, as if they sank into the sea as soon as they entered.

After checking for a long time, I still haven't figured out where it came from. Wang Tou'er sighed in disappointment. With these ground uptown fox society rats, they still can't inquire about anything, and I'm afraid it will be even more difficult to find out on their own.

took out a dozen foreign dollars and sent him away. The group was in disbelief. In the month since they infiltrated the city of Canton, they have spent countless times and inquired that although they know where these maritime merchants have settled roughly, they still have no idea where their ships are anchored and how their goods are transported. Right now, there is only a return from the person who was sent a few days ago to infiltrate Gao's house.

After waiting for a long time, the two people who were about to sneak into the mansion yesterday came back, and one of them had a blue on his face. The king saw that his spirit was uncertain and knew that things were not good.

"There are fences in the backstreets over there, so it's not easy to get in. I waited and went up the city wall and went around in a circle, and lurked on it for a few days before I found something strange. "These two people were famous snitch thieves on the road in the past, because they committed a life lawsuit, they were arrested by the sea before they went to take refuge in the pirates, this time they wanted to take them to Guangzhou to take risks, and the Zheng family promised a lot of money.

On the city wall, they observed the people and goods entering and exiting the back door of the mansion, and found that they all came out of the backyard of another house. So he managed to go into the courtyard and inspect it, and saw the Australian maritime merchants.

"There are four people in total, all of whom are dressed in the clothes of this dynasty, but they have hair and hair, like monks."

Knowing that there was something strange about this courtyard, I inspected it for two more days and found that this was originally the secret residence of the Gao family, and now it is an Australian maritime hotel. All the goods were transported from this secret house to the Gao family, and the Gao family also carried the goods to the secret house.

So the problem came back again, and I still didn't find out where the goods of this group of maritime merchants came from.

"I wanted to hear what they had to say, but alas!" There was a bruise on his face and he said fiercely, "There is a practitioner in it, and he found it when he just wanted to get closer, and he threw the stone quickly and ruthlessly." ”

"I think we're not going to do it." Someone inside whispered, "Just come and 'dig out the quilt'." If you take the Yan steward of the Gao family or simply arrest Gao Ju himself, you can't ask all about it! ”

Wang Tou snorted: "Catch it?" Which of the merchants on this street is easy to mess with? Not to mention that their hands and eyes are all over the sky, even if the house can raise a nurse, it is enough for you to drink a pot. ”

"Then get one of the maritime merchants out." The man smiled, "Even if we don't mess with the Gao family, it's not a problem to mess with these uneducated maritime merchants, right?" Listening to Brother He, there is only one practitioner here, and there is no guard from the Gao family. Even if he is covered in iron, how many nails can he make? Let's gather a few more skilled brothers, go in and tie one out, and bring it to the boat, not to mention Australia, even if it is from Kunlun Mountain, we have to make it clear. Besides," he laughed greedily, "to let people go, and not to take something good?" ”

When everyone heard this, they applauded. They all looked at the king's head. Wang Tou thought that this was a good solution. It's not a big deal to tie up a maritime merchant, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you will be angry about it, and you can leave a few steps in the future.

Thinking of this, several people buried their heads in planning.